BY DON SORCHYCH | APRIL 18, 2012

Taxpayer rape

Flyer abuse

We are thankful the Arizona Republic has weak distribution in our market area. That is true for advertisers as well as their overwhelmingly liberal stance on all things. Cave Creek Councilman Jim Bruce’s editorial in last Wednesday’s Scottsdale Republic is no surprise, since Bruce does not recuse himself when Harold’s Corral comes up for discussion, but should, since he lives in a neighborhood relatively near Harold’s.

Recall Bruce was one of the four who voted for a public vote for a property tax. I hope the voting public remembers that. Now, to add insult to injury, he goes public. Read Adam Trenk’s thoughtful response to Bruce’s blather in letters to the editor. It is no wonder he responded, since Bruce’s allegations about him are not pretty, but also wrong.

Bruce’s headline shows where he is going. “Property tax only fair way to fund fire protection” Hello? “Only fair way,” tells you lots. Bruce made his living as an attorney in Chicago, the most corrupt city in America and the former home of Barack Hussein Obama, whose favorite tax argument is everyone, especially wealthy people, should pay their “fair share.”

So Bruce took a page from Obama’s teleprompter. The message from liberals is tax, tax, and tax.

As writer Gary Kiernan says, give the town a property tax and they will tell us who will collect our garbage. Then what? They will think of something; that is what governments do.

The line was drawn with our conservation of Spur Cross Ranch, now let's return to being Creekers again. That means independent thought and action. An assessor determining how much you pay for anything is diabolical. Look at your tax bill to see what schools are costing you, whether you have children in school or not. Tell me that isn’t a form of income redistribution.

Bruce recites the tired old inaccurate story that 45 percent of the property owners subscribe to Rural/Metro fire protection. Rural/Metro, who keeps records, says nearly 55 percent subscribe. Now add 37 percent that have vacant land and you are up to 92 percent. I am sure some of the vacant land owners have subscriptions since Rural/Metro has low rates for vacant land, but with a property tax their rates would be astronomical, and most don’t live here and can’t vote.

Those who claim the vacant lands are fire hazards ignore the fact that if vacant land catches fire, Rural/Metro will extinguish the fire and charge the land owner just like they do home owners, if they are not subscribers.

Bruce neglects the most important aspect of this attempted abuse of citizens of Cave Creek. This would open the flood gates of taxpayer abuse with no real gain. Bruce brags about $1.3 million dollars and a two percent per year increase. That means the program is underfunded right out of the gate. There was never a serious attempt to capture all the costs, including infrastructure and expansion. If this passes, there will be another short term necessity to correct the obvious deficiencies.

Furthermore, since this taxpayer rape is backed by HOAs, why don’t they negotiate contracts with Rural/Metro? They can you know. But they want the rest of us to pay for their fire protection.

Flyer
I received this flyer this morning.

“Are you aware …
• Plans are underway to dramatically change your peaceful, rural lifestyle.
• Of how property tax will be calculated and spent?
• Cahava Springs Development is one step away from having direct access to Spur Cross Road. (Ed. Note: This is an outright lie.)
• The town continues to challenge an annexation agreement, which protects our rural lifestyle and is valid through 2022."

Presumably this is a group of people on and around Morning Star Road, a road I traverse daily. They had an earlier meeting and I wasn’t invited. Thirty people attended, including Town Manager Usama Abujbarah.

Yes, there was an annexation agreement, that Morning Star Road would not be widened or paved until at least 2022. Several things have changed since that agreement was written.
PM 10, for instance, demands paving, or dust control, if more than 150 trips per day drive the road. Apparently, Morning Star Road traffic exceeds 150.

The town has agreed to grade the road twice each year, which is far too seldom. Drive the road and you will know what I mean.

Even though I hate paving, I signed the petition to pave the road. When I signed 15 others had signed also.

Interestingly, I received the flyer from a third party, not from whoever is planning the next meeting.

When the Cahava Springs development was approved by council, Cahava Springs donated an 80 acre land bridge to Cave Creek, which connected the Cave Creek Recreation Area to Spur Cross Ranch Conservation Area for horses and hikers. It is a non-vehicular grant so motorized vehicles cannot cross it and therefore someone is spreading lies.

The town is attempting to arrange a horse trail from Old Stage Road to 48th street. The ever friendly neighbor, Gerald Freeman, who has sued me for years, has filed a Temporary Restraining Order against Cave Creek, Cahava Springs and me to prevent the horse trail. I would think every horse rider would be furious as well as anyone who resents bullies.